“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend”: Barnaby FitzPatrick and Gaelic Collaboration with the Tudor crown c.1535-1581: By Diarmuid Wheeler

By the dawn of the sixteenth century, and the 1530s in particular, several Gaelic clans within the territories of Leix and Offaly faced a difficult dilemma. With the collapse of Silken Thomas FitzGerald’s rebellion in the year 1535 and the imminent prospect of an English born governor intervening in the affairs of the midlands’ territories for the very first time, Gaelic chieftains were forced to make a difficult choice; collaborate with this new administration or resist it. For certain chieftaincies, such as the FitzPatrick clan of Upper Ossory, the answer was relatively quite simple and straightforward. Essentially a no man’s land, wedged firmly between the two territories of Kilkenny and Leix, and essentially belonging to both, the FitzPatricks were forced to alter their allegiances in the wake of increasing Butler military power and the very real possibility of their territory being reshired as part of County Kilkenny.[1] The clan’s chief, Brian FitzPatrick, was very much aware of the crown’s agenda to restrict Butler power as much as possible, all the while promoting them to higher office.[2] Thus, he seized the initiative in an attempt to consolidate his family’s position, making it clear to the administration that he and his family were capable, and more than willing, to serve as counterweights to Butler power in the south midlands.[3] Brian met Lord Deputy Leonard Grey on the 8 November 1537 and agreed to an early form of “surrender and regrant”, swearing to hold his lands of the king, to adopt the English tongue, renounce the Pope and conduct himself and govern Upper Ossory in a similar manner to the feudal border lords of the Pale.[4] In return, the clan gained the protection of the crown and Brian secured his position as chieftain, safeguarding both parties against any Butler aggression in the future.[5] Brian embraced his newfound sense of loyalism to the Tudor crown and became the first Gaelic chieftain to be granted an English peerage, Baron of Upper Ossory, as well as the first to sit as a member of the Irish parliament in the house of lords in 1541, subsequently travelling to London in 1543 to be knighted by the king in person.[6] Brian was also adamant that his eldest son and heir, Barnaby, would continue in his footsteps, not only embracing collaboration with the crown but also English cultural assimilation as well as continuing to resist Ormond claims upon Upper Ossory.[7] Over the course of this paper, the life of Barnaby FitzPatrick will be analysed, in particular his decision to not only embrace collaboration with the crown but also Anglicisation, his dedication to his role as a crown agent, his subsequent downfall and the impact his decisions had on Upper Ossory by the time of his death in 1582 and beyond.

Barnaby FitzPatrick was educated from an early age in the Pale where within a year he learned to speak English fluently, eventually being sent by his father to London in 1542 to be raised as a courtier and challenge Butler court influence.[8] Upon his arrival in London, Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland, referred to the Gaelic youth as a ‘goodly and proper child’.[9] His time in London quickly became an overwhelming success for father and son alike. Chosen to march in Henry VIII’s funeral procession in 1547 carrying a ‘banner of ancient arms’, he quickly became a close friend of the young prince and eventual king, Edward VI, who, until his untimely death in 1553, allegedly spoke of Barnaby with ‘an ease and informality suggesting a strong personal affection’. [10] During Edward’s short reign, Barnaby was made a gentleman of the king’s privy chamber alongside Robert Dudley and eventually carried out the same role from 6 December 1551- 9 December 1552 to Henry II, King of France.[11] Acting as an undercover English crown agent, FitzPatrick served as Edward’s eyes and ears in France during the Italian War 1551-1559 against The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, reporting regularly to the young King of events on the European mainland.[12] Before his departure from France, Barnaby secured glowing recommendations from prominent figures such as Henry II and Anne de Montmorency, King and Constable of France respectively.[13] In addition, upon his return to England, Barnaby played an active part alongside his cousin, Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, in crushing Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion of 1554 receiving further high praise and recommendations from Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.[14]

By 1554, Barnaby was back in Upper Ossory where he quarrelled with his father Brian and his wife, Elizabeth O’Connor, whom he referred to as ‘the most naughty and malicious creature alive’.[15] In addition, Barnaby seemed particularly vexed at his father’s apparent unwillingness to assist the government in their efforts to establish the Leix and Offaly plantation or sufficiently suppress the rebellious O’More and O’Connor clans.[16] Even at this early stage, it appeared clear that Barnaby was unwilling to allow his father to jeopardise all he had achieved in England and abroad.[17] Barnaby offered his support to the crown once again in 1556 and was appointed to lead a band of his clan’s horsemen and kerne on a government expedition into Ulster to dispel the Scots there.[18] Further assignments followed such as his participation in the unsuccessful defense of English held Calais in 1557-1558.[19] When Barnaby was appointed by Queen Mary to crush O’More and O’Connor resistance in March 1558, unlike his father, he seized the opportunity with open arms to prove his loyalty to the crown.[20]

A dynastic struggle quickly ensued between Brian and Barnaby, who backed by government support, gradually eclipsed his father as cheiftain of the FitzPatrick clan.[21] Meanwhile, Barnaby served as Lieutenant to Sir George Howard, General of the men at arms and demi-lances, at the Siege of Leith in 1560.[22] His bravery at the siege earned him the recognition of the crown and he was subsequently knighted at Berwick on the 18 July by the Duke of Norfolk.[23] In 1564, he garnered high praise for bringing yet another O’More and O’Connor rebellion in Leix and Offaly to an end.[24] He further assisted the crown in a northern expedition against Shane O’Neill in 1566 and was subsequently referred to by Sidney as ‘a gentleman of noble service and valour’.[25]

Later that same year, he appealed for Upper Ossory to be shired as part of the Queen’s County in an attempt to avoid the territory being absorbed within the Ormond palatinate.[26] The tumultuous latter half of the 1560s and the 1570s as a whole provided Barnaby with an opportunity to prove his worth to the crown even further. Thus, reinforced with powers of martial law and whilst serving as sheriff of the Queen’s County, Barnaby launched a relentless assault on the O’More and O’Connors.[27] In 1577, having killed several members of both groups, Barnaby informed Sir Francis Walsingham: ‘I doubt not with the help of God to kill or banish the rest in short time’.[28] Arguably his greatest achievement during this period occurred in July 1578 when he succeeded in hunting down and killing the formidable Gaelic rebel Rory Óg O’More, referred to as ‘the only Robin Hood of all Ireland’, essentially putting an end to one of the most dangerous Gaelic rebellions for the crown in the midlands.[29] According to Lord Deputy Henry Sidney, when offered the reward of the bounty on O’More’s head of £1000, Barnaby was content to accept a mere £100 for his services.[30]

For the duration of his career, however, Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, had been a thorn in Barnaby’s side and upon hearing that the Baron of Upper Ossory granted Sir John FitzGerald hospitality in Coulkill Castle during the height of the Desmond revolt in 1579, combined with the defection of Barnaby’s two half-brothers to the rebels, Ormond accused Barnaby of treason for which he was eventually jailed in Dublin Castle on 14 January 1581.[31] Sir Henry Wallop, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, eventually secured Barnaby and his wife’s release from prison when both fell ill after some four months in captivity, persuading the Queen to relocate both to a house in the city.[32] Although his wife made a full recovery, Barnaby was not so lucky and succumbed to his illness that November, dying at the age of just 46.[33]

There can be no doubt that Barnaby’s brief but industrious career ultimately ended in failure, accused of treason and dying as a result of his time spent in captivity. Certain historians have argued that Barnaby’s sole achievement was that he managed to retain Upper Ossory’s ‘independence, an accomplishment which had cost him his life in the end’.[34] He also argues that in the ‘peak of his career’, Barnaby received just one significant appointment within the new administration, as ‘Lieutenant to the lord deputy of the forts in King’s County and Queen’s county’.[35] However, one could argue, that this is an unfair assessment of what Barnaby had truly achieved through collaboration with the crown. By embracing the cultural assimilation process to a greater extent than his father had, he rose to become a valued confidante of King Edward VI, a position few sons of Old English lords never mind Gaelic chieftains ever experienced. He also accomplished his father’s wish for greater court influence in London, securing the backing of not only the young King Edward himself but also the Secretary of State William Cecil and Lord Deputy Henry Sidney among others, in addition to glowing recommendations from the French King Henry II as well as Queen Mary I and King Philip II of Spain. He succeeded in every role bestowed upon him whether on expeditions in Queen’s County and King’s County crushing O’More and O’Connor resistance or on crown assignments in the north and in Scotland for which he eventually received a knighthood. It is also highly probable, despite Barnaby leaving no religious testament behind, that he was one of the first native Irish lords to embrace Protestantism as it seems highly unlikely that it would have been possible for him to get so close to Edward, or indeed hold so much favour, had he been an openly professing Catholic.[36] This is even more noteworthy and significant when one considers the high praise and support he received from the staunch Catholic monarchs, Queen Mary and King Philip.

Barnaby also put the groundwork in place for his successors to inherit as was the case with his younger brother Florence FitzPatrick, who through continuation of crown collaboration, eventually secured lucrative monastic land grants from the Queen as well as the formal shiring of Upper Ossory to the Queen’s County in 1600, thus freeing it from any future Butler attempts to absorb the territory within County Kilkenny.[37]

Regarding the argument that Barnaby received just one significant appointment during his lifetime, on the contrary it could be argued that he held several significant positions in fact, often at the expense of his new English counterparts. According to Jon G. Crawford, the structure of the English military establishment post-1556 centred around three distinct positions/posts of which Barnaby held all three: First, the role of captain over a band of soldiers.[38] Secondly, there were the constables of forts and wards who had both civil and military authority.[39] Thirdly, the position of seneschal.[40] Barnaby was also appointed to the position of sheriff of Queen’s County from 1568-69 onwards.[41] He also held the position of commissioner of musters for Queen’s County in 1572 and 1573 as well as the title of commissioner for the conduct of military upper affairs in Munster and Connaught in 1576, 1577 and 1580 as well as commissioner for ecclesiastical causes in the latter year.[42]

In conclusion, there can be no doubt that collaboration offered the FitzPatrick clan a means of overcoming the Butler stranglehold on Upper Ossory but as highlighted throughout this paper, in the case of Barnaby, collaboration meant so much more. It seems apparent that Barnaby genuinely embraced the process of English cultural assimilation and throughout his career, incessantly fought to prove himself to the Tudor government which had placed so much trust in him. Although we will never truly know his mindset or real reasons for his fervent collaboration, his efforts were unquestionably invaluable to the crown during times of war and rebellion which seemed relentless throughout the sixteenth century. Barnaby’s actions therefore, one could argue, ensured that the crown administration retained a foothold and a presence within the midlands, the shires of King’s County and Queen’s County, and the territory of Upper Ossory, well into the seventeenth century. In turn, it could be argued that the clan became a symbol and model for other chieftaincies of the benefits of embracing cultural assimilation, Anglicisation and the overall policy of ‘surrender and regrant’.

Bibliography:

Manuscript Sources:

British Library, London

Cotton MSS: Caligula E I

The National Archives, London

SP 60 State papers, Ireland, Henry VIII

SP 61 State papers, Ireland, Edward VI

SP 62 State papers, Ireland, Philip and Mary I

SP 63, State papers, Ireland, Elizabeth I

Printed Sources:

Account of the facsimiles of national manuscripts of Ireland, ed. J.T. Gilbert (Dublin, 1882).

Acts of the privy council in Ireland, 1556-1571, ed. Charles Haliday, (London, 1897).

Annála ríoghachta Éireann: annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. John O’Donovan, 7 vols. (Dublin, 1990).

Letters and Memorials of State in the Reigns of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King Charles the first, part of the reign of King Charles the second, and Oliver’s usurpation, ed. Arthur Collins, 2 vols. (London, 1746).

Bradshaw, Brendan, The Irish constitutional revolution of the sixteenth century (Cambridge, 1979).

Buckley, James (ed.), ‘A viceregal progress through the south and west of Ireland in 1567’, in Waterford & S.E. of Ireland Archaeological Society Journal, xii (1909).

Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, second edition, volume 6 (Gloucester, 1987).

Crawford, Jon G., Anglicizing the Government of Ireland (Dublin, 1993).

Edwards, David, ‘The MacGiollaPhádraigs of Upper Ossory, 1532-1641’, in Padraig G. Lane and William Nolan (eds.), Laois History and society: Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, 1999).

Hore, H.F. and Graves, James The social state of the southern and eastern counties of Ireland (Dublin, 1870).

Jordan, W.K., Edward VI: The young King (Cambridge, 1968).

O’Hanlon, J. & O’Leary, E., History of the Queen’s County, part II (Dublin, 1907).

Price, Liam, ‘The armed forces of the Irish chiefs in the sixteenth century’, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, ii (no. 2; winter, 1932).

[1] C.A. Empey, ‘The cantreds of the medieval county of Kilkenny’ in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, ci (no. 2; 1971), pp 128-129; James Buckley (ed.), ‘A viceregal progress through the south and west of Ireland in 1567’, in Waterford & S.E. of Ireland Archaeological Society Journal, xii (1909), p.184; Liam Price, ‘The armed forces of the Irish chiefs in the sixteenth century’, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, ii (no. 2; winter, 1932), p.202; H.F. Hore and James Graves, The social stat of the southern and eastern counties of Ireland (Dublin, 1870), pp 98-121; David Edwards, ‘The MacGiollaPhádraigs of Upper Ossory, 1532-1641’, in Padraig G. Lane and William Nolan (eds.), Laois History and society: Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, 1999), pp 331-332.

[38] Barnaby had been in charge of a band of kern since 1558. Jon G. Crawford, Anglicizing the Government of Ireland (Dublin, 1993), pp 277-278; Mary to Barnaby, 12 March 1558, TNA, SP 62/2/18; An estimate of the debt due to the garrisons in Ireland at Michelmas 1567, 30 September 1567, TNA, SP 63/21/531; Book of the establishment of the Irish garrison in November 1568 and on 20 March 1569, 20 March 1569, TNA, SP 63/27/361; The monthly charge of the queen’s army and garrisons, 1 April 1571, TNA, SP 63/32/1; Book of the garrison discharged and those remaining in pay, 1572, TNA, SP 63/36/275.

[39] A post he was essentially appointed to when undertaking the role of Lieutenant of the forts in 1576: Fiants, Eliz. I, nos. 2843-2844.

[40] A position he held in Queen’s County in 1572: Lord Deputy FitzWilliam and council to Queen Elizabeth, 27 June 1572, TNA, SP 63/36/275.